2018 PORTLAND QUEER FILM FESTIVAL

Welcome

The 22nd Annual Portland Queer Film Festival takes place at Cinema 21, September 28 – October 4, 2018, with a special pre-fest kickoff screening of Bad Reputation, the doc that looks at the stunning career of rock and roller Joan Jett on September 26 at 7:00pm. Passes and tickets for all screenings are now on sale.

PQFF has been transitioning as an event that not only celebrates queer filmmaking but also supports worthwhile local institutions that tend to the needs of the community. This year revenue generated from the festival will benefit two extraordinary non-profits: Cascade AIDS Project (CAP) and Our House of Portland. Both groups have been providing services to those affected by HIV for over three decades.

Passes

Our PQFF PASS+ passes are $75 and gain you admission into all PQFF events as well as special screenings and engagement through September of 2019.

Tickets

OPENING NIGHT

1985

1985 follows Adrian (Cory Michael Smith, “Gotham”), a closeted young man returning to his Texas hometown for Christmas during the first wave of the AIDS crisis. Burdened with unspeakable tragedy in New York, Adrian reconnects with his brother (Aidan Langford) and estranged childhood friend (Jamie Chung), as he struggles to divulge his dire circumstances to his religious parents (Virginia Madsen and Michael Chiklis).

SPECIAL PRE-FEST KICKOFF!

BAD REPUTATION

September 26 • 7:00 pm • 84 minutes

We’ve got a special pre-fest kickoff screening of BAD REPUTATION, the doc about rock-n-roll bad ass numero uno Joan Jett, on Wednesday, September 26 at 7:00pm! The screening will feature extra footage available only in theaters, plus we have Joan Jett vinyl and other swag to give away.

CENTERPIECE FILM

WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY

September 29 • 6:00 pm • 84 minutes

This Victorian dramedy re-imagines the personal life of 19th century poet Emily Dickinson. It destabilizes the widely held perception that she was a reclusive spinster by showcasing her “hidden persona”: a lively and comedic personality who was romantically involved with her best friend/sister-in-law. Starring Molly Shannon and Susan Ziegler and directed by Madeleine Olnek.

A MOMENT IN THE REEDS

September 29 • 8:00 pm • 108 minutes

Leevi returns from university in Paris to his native Finland for thesummer to help his estranged father renovate the family lake house. Tareq, a recent asylum seeker from Syria, has been hired to help with thework and when Leevi’s father has to return to town on business, the two youngmen establish a connection and spend a few days discovering and getting to know one another duringthe Finnish summer.

THE VERY BEST OF HUMP!

September 29 • 10:30 pm

Each year HUMP! titillates audiences with the finest selection of amateur porn short films around in their annual festival. The Very Best of HUMP! is a collection of featured shorts spanning the last 10 years of the festival, 2008 to 2017.

ANCHOR AND HOPE

September 30 • 3:45 pm • 113 minutes

In their mid-30s, Eva (Oona Chaplin) and Kat’s (Natalia Tena) humble, yetcarefree, lifestyle in their London canal boat gets turned upside down whenEva presents Kat with an ultimatum: she wants a child. Kat resists, knowingthat it will end the bohemian lifestyle she’s always envisaged with Eva. WhenKat’s best friend, Roger (David Verdaguer), drops in from Barcelona to partywith the ladies, however, the three of them toy around with the idea ofcreating a baby together.

CENTERPIECE FILM

CALL HER GANDA

September 30 • 6:00 pm • 98 minutesDirector PJ Raval in attendance

When Jennifer Laude, a Filipina trans woman, is brutally murdered by a U.S. Marine, three women intimately invested in the case – Virgie Suarez – an activist attorney, Meredith Talusan – a transgender journalist, and Julita Nanay – Jennifer’s mother – galvanize a political uprising, pursuing justice and taking on hardened histories of US imperialism.

MAKING MONTGOMERY CLIFT

September 30 • 8:30 pm

Classic film star and queer icon Montgomery Clift’s legacy has long been a story of tragedy and self-destruction. But when his nephew dives into the family archives, a much more complicated picture emerges. Directors Robert Clift and Hillary Demmon delve into a rich archive of materials left behind by Montgomery Clift and his brother Brooks,wrestling with questions of family, legacy, representation and who ultimately gets to say what a person’s life is allowed to mean.

ROOM TO GROW

Documentary chronicling the lives and stories of seven LGBTQ+ teens and families in cities across the country including Portland, offering an up-close and intimate glimpse into their daily lives as they endeavor to find an identity that fits and a place in their communities.

Free Admission

BUDDIES

October 1 • 9:15 pm • 81 minutes

The first feature-length drama about AIDS, Buddieshaslong been unavailable. But is now re-issued in this new 2K digital restoration. Arthur J. Bressan Jr. created this gay indie masterpiece in 1985. When 25-year-old David volunteers to be a “buddy” to an AIDS patient,Robert, a 32-year-old whohas been abandoned by his friends and lovers. Buddies happens within Robert’s Manhattan hospitalroom; we hear his deftly scripted diary entries invoiceover. In the simplicity of the story and theelegance of its unfolding, Bressan andBuddiesachieve arare perfection. It’s a timeless portrayal of an entire era in gay history.

Special $5 Admission

DYKES CAMERA ACTION!

October 2 • 6:45 pm • 61 minutes

Lesbians didn’t always get to see themselves on screen. But between Stonewall, the feminist movement, and the experimental cinema of the 1970s, they built visibility, and transformed the social imagination about queerness. Filmmakers Barbara Hammer, Su Friedrich, Rose Troche, Cheryl Dunye, Yoruba Richen, Desiree Akhavan, Vicky Du, film critic B. Ruby Rich, Jenni Olson, and others share moving and often hilarious stories from their lives and discuss how they’ve expressed queer identity through film.

TRANSMILITARY

October 2 • 8:00 pm • 92 minutes

Approximately 15,500 transgender people serve in the U.S. military (notably the largest transgender employer in the U.S.), where they must conceal their gender identity because military policies ban their service. Transmilitary chronicles the lives of four individuals defending their country’s freedom while fighting for their own. They put their careers and their families’ livelihoods on the line by coming out as transgender to top brass officials in the Pentagon in hopes of attaining the equal right to serve. The ban was lifted in 2016, but with President Trump now trying to reinstate it, their futures hang in the balance again.

FREELANCERS ANONYMOUS

October 3 • 6:45 pm • 81 minutes

Freelancers Anonymous is a quick-paced comedy feature about a group of women who come together to launch a tech start-up company. The story follows Billie who, on impulse, quits her soul-sucking office job and is left to figure out “now what?” She meets a ragtag group of women who are also looking for employment, and is struck with the idea of cultivating their skills to create an app for freelancers.

TUCKED

October 3 • 8:45 pm • 117 minutes

When veteran drag queen Jackie Collins receives a diagnosis with six weeks to live, all he wants to do is perform his long-running act, and behave as if all isnormal. But between a surprising new friendship with a rising young queen and unfinished business with his estranged daughter, he may just have the mosteventful month and a half of his life.

ALONE IN THE GAME

October 4 • 6:45 pm • 95 minutes

Sports continues to be an unsettling environment for many LGBTQ people on and off the field. Homophobia, transphobia, and a culture of secrecy stronglypersist in American sports, often seen as the final frontier for LGBTQ equality. Alone in the Game is a powerful documentary that enters into the old boys’ clubworld of sport and examines this major dilemma.

Special $5 Admission

IDEAL HOME

October 4 • 8:45 pm • 81 minutes

Celebrity chef Erasmus (Steve Coogan) and his partner Paul (Paul Rudd) have a happy and rather self-indulgent life together. Their perfect existence is turnedupside down when, at a dinner party, Erasmus is confronted by the grandson he never knew he had. With the child’s father in prison it seems he has nowhereelse to go and so, after much debate they decide to take him in.